EVIDENCE AND INTERPRETATION - Thinking About Relevance in Hollywood Trailers
Strategy/challenge: Drawing relevant and a plausible inferences from a clip of a hollywood movie.
Catalyst for Thinking: Trailer of a Hollywood Movie
Description:
The Day After Tomorrow
Twister
2012
Slumdog Millionare
Roger and Me
Dante's Peak
Radiant City
The Last King of Scotland
Wag the Dog
Objective (purpose)/occasions/applications:
- looking for data to answer a specific question
Selection of Data: - Trailer needs to have connection to course, unit, themes, curriculum requirements, etc.
Connect to students' previous knowledge
- Explain to students that we would like to show more Hollywood movies because we know you enjoy watching them. However, Hollywood movies are made for entertainment and we need to make sure that there is strong connection to our course, unit, themes, curriculum requirements.
- Invite students to consider the reasons why Hollywood movies would be appropriate for a class to view
Introduce the task
- Share with students their challenge: To draw relevant inferences from a movie trailer to determine if the movie would be suitable to purchase for our studies.
- Suggest that is important to be circumspect when examining images, actions and the script. This means to hold off on jumping to conclusions and be tentative in one's beliefs until there is enough evidence to form a valid conclusion. Invite students to be circumspect by brainstorming why we might not trust the trailer presented (e.g. we don't know what scenes were not included, we don't know the intent of the editor, ect.)
Build Criteria for discovering what is relevant
- Show a movie trailer that is relevant to current studies (Ex. Grade 11 Physical Geography class could watch the trailer for Twister)
- Invite students to work in pairs to discuss what criteria they would use to convince their teacher that this is a relevant movie to show to the class.
- Pairs share their top two criteria for relevance with the class.
- Based on their answer suggest that they have uncovered criteria for relevance.
- Criteria for relevant:
- appropriate grade level/audience
- ideas/themes/plot relate to course
- geographic content is accurate
- visuals are applicable
Apply the Criteria
- Show the same movie trailer again and ask the students to complete "Criteria for Relevance" template and complete the recommendation to teacher.
Criteria for Relevance
Evidence of Relevance
Grade level (Appropriate for audience, grade level) ¨Violence ¨Language/vocabulary ¨Rating
1 2 3 4 5
Ideas/Themes (Plot) ¨Relates to current studies
1 2 3 4 5
Visuals ¨Are relevant to current studies
1 2 3 4 5
Geographic Content ¨Is accurate
1 2 3 4 5
Recommendation to the teacher:
Student selection and determining relevance
- Inform students that they are to find an additional Hollywood trailer that is related to our studies.
- Have students complete the "Criteria for Relevance" template and the recommendation to teacher for their new Hollywood trailer.
Opportunities for Differentiation
- Instead of allowing students to find own trailers, teacher can provide a list of trailers
- Flexible groups (ie. pairs or small groups) could be used
EVIDENCE AND INTERPRETATION - Thinking About Relevance in Hollywood Trailers
Strategy/challenge: Drawing relevant and a plausible inferences from a clip of a hollywood movie.
Catalyst for Thinking: Trailer of a Hollywood Movie
Description:
The Day After Tomorrow
Twister
2012
Slumdog Millionare
Roger and Me
Dante's Peak
Radiant City
The Last King of Scotland
Wag the Dog
Objective (purpose)/occasions/applications:
- looking for data to answer a specific question
Selection of Data:
- Trailer needs to have connection to course, unit, themes, curriculum requirements, etc.
Connect to students' previous knowledge
- Explain to students that we would like to show more Hollywood movies because we know you enjoy watching them. However, Hollywood movies are made for entertainment and we need to make sure that there is strong connection to our course, unit, themes, curriculum requirements.
- Invite students to consider the reasons why Hollywood movies would be appropriate for a class to view
Introduce the task
- Share with students their challenge: To draw relevant inferences from a movie trailer to determine if the movie would be suitable to purchase for our studies.
- Suggest that is important to be circumspect when examining images, actions and the script. This means to hold off on jumping to conclusions and be tentative in one's beliefs until there is enough evidence to form a valid conclusion. Invite students to be circumspect by brainstorming why we might not trust the trailer presented (e.g. we don't know what scenes were not included, we don't know the intent of the editor, ect.)
Build Criteria for discovering what is relevant
- Show a movie trailer that is relevant to current studies (Ex. Grade 11 Physical Geography class could watch the trailer for Twister)
- Invite students to work in pairs to discuss what criteria they would use to convince their teacher that this is a relevant movie to show to the class.
- Pairs share their top two criteria for relevance with the class.
- Based on their answer suggest that they have uncovered criteria for relevance.
- Criteria for relevant:
- appropriate grade level/audience
- ideas/themes/plot relate to course
- geographic content is accurate
- visuals are applicable
Apply the Criteria
- Show the same movie trailer again and ask the students to complete "Criteria for Relevance" template and complete the recommendation to teacher.
¨ Violence
¨ Language/vocabulary
¨ Rating
¨ Relates to current studies
¨ Are relevant to current studies
¨ Is accurate
Student selection and determining relevance
- Inform students that they are to find an additional Hollywood trailer that is related to our studies.
- Have students complete the "Criteria for Relevance" template and the recommendation to teacher for their new Hollywood trailer.
Opportunities for Differentiation
- Instead of allowing students to find own trailers, teacher can provide a list of trailers
- Flexible groups (ie. pairs or small groups) could be used